thread
/ˈθɹɛd/
thread noun: a cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
Noun
thread (plural threads)
- A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
- Woolen threads were an occult means, according to the Roman poet Horace, of depriving a person of virility.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 234
- Synonyms:
- string
- A piece of yarn, especially said of warps and wefts in a woven fabric.
- Any of various natural (as spiderweb, etc.) or manufactured filaments (as glass, plastic, metal, etc.).
- the threads of a spiderweb
- He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
- A slender stream of water.
- a thread of water
- The line midway between the banks of a stream.
- A screw thread.
- The continuing course of life; the thread of life.
- A line of reasoning, sequence of ideas, or train of thought.
- I’ve lost the thread of what you’re saying.
- I was pondering these things, when an incident, and a somewhat unexpected one, broke the thread of my musings.1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII
- A continuing theme that modifies the whole discourse.
- All of these essays have a common thread.
- Synonyms:
- topic
- A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.
- A series of posts or messages, consisting of an initial post and responses to it, generally relating to the same subject, on a newsgroup, Internet forum, or social media platform.
- A sequence of connections.
- A precarious condition; something that which offers no real or otherwise perceived security.
- a life hanging by a thread
- The degree of fineness; quality; nature.
- A neat courtier, / Of a most elegant thread.1632 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “The Magnetick Lady: Or, Humors Reconcil’d. A Comedy […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio)...
Verb
thread (third-person singular simple present threads, present participle threading, simple past threaded or (archaic) thrid, past participle threaded or (archaic) thrid or (archaic) thridden)
- To pass a thread through the eye of a needle.
- To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through; to string.
- To make one's way through or between (a constriction or obstacles).
- to thread through narrow passages
- I think I can thread my way through here, but it’s going to be tight.
- To cautiously make (one's way) through a precarious place or situation.
- He threaded his way through legal entanglements.
- To pass through; to pierce through; to penetrate.
- And when the Miners by theſe Shafts or Adits do ſtrike or threed a Vein of any Metal […] then the Metal which is digged […] is called Oar […]1670, John Pettus, Fodinæ Regales […], London: Printed by H. L. and R. B. […], page 2
- Tom out here will have leave to thrid you with bullets.1896 May 12, The Pall Mall Magazine, page 12
- To interweave as if with thread; to intersperse.
- [...] the urban landscape threaded with parks and trees to the horizon. The enormous sky over that flat line dazzled clear blue or filled with towers of cumulus clouds.2010 April 1, Gayla Marty, Memory of Trees: A Daughter’s Story of a Family Farm, U of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 177
- [...] dark hair threaded with gray pulled back from a face still beautiful in spite of clear evidence of the passage of time.2014 June 30, G.B. Lindsey, Diana Copland, Libby Drew, Secrets of Neverwood: An Anthology, Carina Press, →ISBN
- To form a screw thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.).
- Coordinate term: tap
- to thread a bolt
- To remove (facial hair) by way of a looped thread that is tightly wound in the middle.
- to thread your eyebrows and trim them
- To feed (a sewing machine or otherwise a projecting or exposing mechanism, such as a projector, a camera, etc.) with film.
- To pass (a film or tape) through a projector, recorder, etc. so as to correct its path.
- Of boiling syrup: To form a threadlike stream when poured from a spoon.
thread meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
thread in Hindi
- long, thin and flexible form of material
- धागा dhāgā, सूत sūt, सूत्र sūtra, तंत tant, तन्तु tantu, तागा tāgā
- (Internet) a series of messages
- सूत sūt
- pass a thread through the eye of a needle
- पिरोना pironā
thread in Tamil
- இழை, சரடு, நூல், திரி, பா, பாவு
thread in Marathi
- thread, fibre
- सूत sūt
- to thread, string
- ओवणे ovṇe
thread in Urdu
- long, thin and flexible form of material
- دھاگا dhāgā, رِشْتَہ riśta, نَخ nax
More languagesFewer languages
- thread in Bengali
- সূত্র śutro
- thread in Telugu
- దారము dāramu
- thread in Malayalam
- നൂല് nūlŭ
- thread in Kannada
- ನೂಲು nūlu
- thread in Punjabi
- تند tand
- thread in Gujarati
- સૂતર sūtar, દોરી dorī
- thread in Odia
- ଥ୍ରେଡ୍, ଥ୍ରେଡ଼
- thread in Sanskrit
- तन्तु tántu, अंशु aṃśu
- thread in Sinhala
- නූල් nūl
- thread in Assamese
- সূতা xuta
- thread in Nepali
- धागो, थ्रेड, धागा
- thread in Pashto
- نخ nax
- thread in Tagalog
- sinulid
- thread in Arabic
- خَيْط ḵayṭ, خيط ḵēṭ, مَوْضُوع mawḍūʕ
- thread in Malay
- benang, bebenang, aliran, urutan
- thread in Indonesian
- benang
- thread in Persian
- نَخ nax, رِشْتِه rešte
- thread in Thai
- ด้าย dâai, เชือก chʉ̂ʉak, ใย yai, กระทู้ grà-túu
- thread in Vietnamese
- chỉ, thớt, xỏ, xâu
- thread in Myanmar
- အမျှင် a.hmyang, အပ်ချည် aphkyany, ချည် hkyany
- Kashmiri
- پَن pan, سٕتھٕر sụthụr
Examples of thread in a sentence
- He cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all if once he lost the thread of his thought.’1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 21:
- Picking the ball up in his own half, Januzaj threaded a 40-yard pass into the path of Rooney to slice Southampton open in the blink of an eye.2013 October 19, Ben Smith, “Manchester United 1-1 Southampton”, in BBC Sport:
- [...] landscape threaded with rivers, roads, tracks, pathways and an airport runway; one peppered with villages, farms, crofts and distilleries.2021 November 4, Steven Mithen, Land of the Ilich: Journey's into Islay's Past, Birlinn Ltd, →ISBN:
- [...] dark hair threaded with early silver.2023 May 2, Lucy Clarke, One of the Girls, Penguin, →ISBN, page 6:
Synonyms of thread
Forms of thread
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | threads |
| alternative form (obsolete) | thred |
| alternative form (obsolete) | thrid |
| alternative form (obsolete) | threed |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | threads |
| present participle | threading |
| past | threaded |
| past participle | threaded |
| past (archaic) | thrid |
| past participle (archaic) | thrid |
| past participle (archaic) | thridden |
Origin of thread
From Middle English thred, þred, threed, from Old English þrǣd, from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-s, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”). Cognates Cognate with Yola dreade (“thread”), Saterland Frisian Träid (“thread, wire”), Cimbrian draat (“string, thread”), Dutch draad (“thread, wire”), German Draht (“thread, wire”), Luxembourgish Drot (“wire”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish tråd (“thread, wire”), Faroese tráður (“thread”), Icelandic þráður (“thread”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dredh (“twist, turn”). More at throw.
Words formed from thread
- Abalakov thread
- bean thread
- bean thread noodle
- brahminical thread
- downthread
- golden thread
- gold thread
- goldthread
- green thread
- hang by a thread
- hang on by a thread
- hyperthreaded
- interthread
- life thread
- lifethread
- lose the thread
- megathread
- microthread
- misthread
- multithread
- nanothread
- needle-and-thread grass
- nun's thread
- packthread
- Pagenstecher thread
- permathread
- pick up the threads
- pick up the threads of
- prethread
- protothread
- sister's thread
- subthread
- threadbare
- thread bug
- thread count
- threaden
- threader
- threadfin
- threadfish
- threadful
- Threadgold
- threadish
- threadjack
- threadjacker
- threadjacking
- thread lace
- thread-legged bug
- threadless
- threadlet
- threadlike
- threadlock
- threadlocker
- thread-locking fluid
- threadly
- threadmaker
- threadmaking
- threadmill
- thread mode
- thread necromancy
- thread needle
Phrases with thread
Words that rhyme with thread
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- wed
- ahead
- bread
- sled
- embed
- in one's stead
- inbred
- ped
- zed
- bestead
- cred
- ed
- fed
- med
- undead
- abed
- bedspread
- DMZ
- Fred
- led
- Prussian red
- retread
- spoon-fed
- unwed
- z
- antired
- aspread
- bark bed
- behead
- bested
- bled
- block head
- bred
- cabin bed
- common thread
- Cow Head
- Crow Head
- faned
- fled
- freedom bread
- fugged
- instead
- ked
- knead
- misled
- ned
- pled
- read
Questions about thread
- What does thread mean?
- Thread means a cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
- What is thread in Hindi?
- Thread in Hindi is धागा (dhāgā), सूत (sūt), सूत्र (sūtra). See Thread meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use thread in a sentence?
- He cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all if once he lost the thread of his thought.’
- What part of speech is thread?
- Thread can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce thread?
- Thread is pronounced /ˈθɹɛd/.
- What is the plural of thread?
- The plural of thread is threads.
Words near thread in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thread (page history and authors); thread (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ओवणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); ನೂಲು (Kannada) (page history and authors); تند (Punjabi) (page history and authors); દોરી (Gujarati) (page history and authors); thread (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); thread (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-thread.ogg.
Cite this entry: “thread.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thread. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.